Special Deliveries: Her Gift, His Baby: Secrets of a Career Girl / For the Baby's Sake / A Very Special Delivery. Carol Marinelli

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       CHAPTER EIGHT

      PENNY KNEW THE drill only too well.

      After a very sleepless night, trying to prepare for her case presentation then later going over and over their near kiss, Penny was up at the crack of dawn and about to have her ultrasound. She went to hitch up her skirt, but she was wearing her wraparound dress and it was a bit too tight.

      ‘Just open it up, Penny,’ the sonographer said, and offered her a sheet, which she pulled over not just her stomach but her chest, because everything was exposed.

      Damn.

      She had been dressing for her presentation.

      Or had she?

      Penny honestly wasn’t sure.

      It was her presentation outfit, which had been sitting in its dry-cleaner bag for two weeks now, waiting for today. It was her grey wraparound and even though she didn’t have a cleavage, it was a bit too low so underneath she wore a silver-grey cami with a bit of lace at the top, and because it was Penny she wore matching panties, which were rather more lace than silk.

      And tonight she’d be getting her needle from Ethan. It was too much, Penny decided. She’d just change into scrubs, except there was a part of her that wanted his eyes on her, a part of her that refused to be silenced, that wanted more than last night, and Penny was most unused to such strong feelings. Even now, walking to get her blood done, she was thinking of the near miss last night and what might have unfolded if they hadn’t been interrupted by the pager. She blinked in astonishment at the depravity of her own thoughts.

      ‘Morning, Penny.’

      It took two attempts to get the blood this morning. She was stressed about her case presentation, worried about her choice of clothes, exhausted after a night of thinking and trying not to think about Ethan and a kiss that never happened and must never happen! This meant Penny sobbed like she never had as they took her blood.

      ‘Finished.’ The nurse smiled as she pressed down on the cotton swab. ‘I think I left a bruise.’

      ‘It’s my own fault,’ Penny said, because despite being held down her arm had jerked when the needle had gone in. As Penny blew her nose, instead of standing up and getting out of there as quickly as possible as she usually would, she asked a question. She was a typical doctor and had read up on things herself, but there was one bit now that was honestly confusing her. ‘Can I ask a question?’

      ‘Of course.’

      ‘About …’ She was going bright red but tried to sound matter-of-fact as she spoke. ‘Increased libido?’ Her voice came out as a croak and Penny cleared her throat, but the nurse was completely unfazed by her question.

      ‘You’re a walking cocktail of hormones at the moment, Penny,’ the nurse said. ‘Often women could think of nothing worse at this stage, but for some …’

      ‘So it’s normal?’

      ‘Sure. Just make sure that you use protection,’ the nurse said. ‘It’s only once we’ve done the embryo transfer that you need to refrain, and not just from sex, no orgasms either—which is unfortunate …’ she smiled ‘… because an increase in libido is commonplace then.’

      Penny blinked. She’d sort of skipped over all those parts, thinking that it would never really be a problem for her.

      ‘You’ll get a phone call later and we’ll sort out your doses,’ the nurse said. ‘You’ll be ready for your trigger injection any day soon. So just enjoy it for now.’

      She certainly wouldn’t be enjoying it! Penny just wanted these feelings to pass, wanted a neat explanation as to why she was nearly climbing the walls at the thought of Ethan. Did she fancy him or was it the medication?

      And did it really matter?

      Would it be so terrible to have sex with someone you really fancied even if it was going absolutely nowhere?

      Stop it, she told herself as she drove to work.

      Just stop it right there!

      Of course the second she walked into work she saw Ethan. She tried to douse the fire in her cheeks, only it wasn’t working—he was dressed in scrubs and very unshaven. He was scowling at the bed board and had clearly been up all night.

      ‘Good sleep?’ His voice was wry.

      ‘Fantastic.’ Hers was equally wry as she walked past, because she’d be lucky to have slept for more than a couple of hours, though she was glad now that she hadn’t accepted the consultant’s position. There was no way she could have juggled it all, she would not have coped if she’d been called in last night and had still been expected to work through the next day.

      Penny got through the busy morning, doing her best to avoid him, and she had a feeling Ethan was trying to avoid her too. Both were trying to pretend that the near miss last night hadn’t happened.

      She headed to the lecture theatre and set up her computer, nodding a greeting as her colleagues filed in. She wasn’t nervous as she was a very good public speaker, but her heart was fluttering as Ethan walked in. He’d been firing on coffee all morning but from his yawn as he took a seat in the lecture theatre for her presentation, she wouldn’t be in the least surprised if he fell asleep СКАЧАТЬ